There is a new love-craze in town. Take a padlock, write your name and the name of your loved-one on it (extra-convenient if your name is Chubb or your intended is a Squire), lock it to a bridge and throw the keys in the river. Your love is then sealed forever, or until the local authority invests in some bolt croppers or a magnet on a rope. Thought to be a determined effort by locksmiths to bolster trade, it actually has origins that some say (Wikipedia, my Aunty Janet and the man at the end of our street) goes back to Serbia prior to the Second World War (you may just have to read the following rhyme in a Peter Sellers, Pink Pantheresque French accent in order to get Banja to rhyme with Danger! – You have been warned!)…

A young schoolmistress who lived in Banja,
Loved a soldier with a liking for danger.
Off fighting in Greece,
Fell for a Corfurian piece,
And when he returned did estrange her.

The schoolmistress took to her bed,
Her engagement broken instead,
No wedding would be,
She cried “Oh why me!”
And within two weeks she was dead.

So today Banja’s young loves know they can,
Insure their love to their man.
Writing names on a padlock,
Will lead them to wedlock!
A happy-ever-after’s the plan!
Happy Valentines Day!
From the Baldock Bard

© Baldock Bard 2013
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